A Beautiful Sunrise

It's been raining for a few days here and it looks like tomorrow will bring more, but today the sunrise was beautiful.  The actual event was much more dramatic than it looks in this picture, but, believe me, it was a rare and awesome sight.

The Movie, The House, Tired Teeth, and Grandchildren

OK. I started this blog several weeks ago. Since then I haven't managed to get the energy to finish it. Not sure why. But I'm going to finish it tonight, October 8, 2009, though the post will show whatever the date was that I started it.

First of all, I'd like to say to my daughter-in-law, Shanna, how much I love her. I love her for her sensitivity, for her attention to the emotional goings on in her household, and for her warmth and compassion. I am also homesick for her and Adam, and the girls. But they will be here soon and we will be there at Christmas. Now, on to the things at hand in the lives of the senior Riggsbees.


A couple of weeks ago I took a movie of my new house which I intended to upload onto this blog. However, owing to my less than proficient skill at movie making, I decided that I would do another one. It wasn't any good either, so I shall have to do yet another. And, with all good intentions I took myself to the mountains for a week where I thought I would have plenty of time to accomplish this daunting task. Owing to the state of construction, things were such a mess that I finally decided that it would be better to put off this little job until things were a little more orderly. Not sure that is going to happen, but I promise to do a movie when you can tell what the house is like. I'm sure you're waiting with bated breath! The week, however was wonderful and I was reminded once again why I love that place. Mama came up for the weekend and pronounced it "beautiful".

And speaking of houses. I am constantly amazed with the feedback we get from people who look at our Charlotte house. It is an older house (45 years), has been well maintained, but needs some updating. Still it has some amenities that are not normal for our area...two-car garage, bonus room, ample storage (inside and out), decks and patios for outdoor living. I understand some of the feedback, like "My clients didn't like the kitchen", "The place is too chopped up." (that's what you get with an older house), "I don't want to do the amount of updating required.", etc. But some of this stuff is anmazing..."I don't like the outside storage buildings.", "I loved the house, but the two big dogs on each side turned me off." (Like I can help that), "The house is too big.", "The house is too little.", "I'd like to have two bedrooms down.", blady, blady, blady. OK. The house is what it is. You should know what to expect when you look at an older house. It ain't the newest transitional house. Give it up! This has been our home for 30 years (almost). We have laughed and cried there. We have reared two children there. We have welcomed friends and family there. I has been HOME. Now, I know that it's not home to you, but give me a break...DOGS NEXT DOOR???

I have tired teeth. I think it is a common thing among those of my generation who generally grew up without fluoridated water, without the benefits of modern dentistry, and with all those silver fillings! I can't count the number of crowns I have in my mouth, all of which have been the result of broken teeth and absent fillings. Also, I've had my share of root canals. In the last three weeks I've had a retreatment on a root canal and have had to have another crown. Hopefully, that's the last one. The endodontist is about my age and he has the same stuff. Maybe it's a generational thing. Well, at least I don't have to have dentures!

Is there anything else in my mouth that can go wrong? Yes, indeed...I already have the beginnings of what I think will eventually turn into another root canal. I hate this!

Now for the good news. The house is almost done and we will be moved by the end of the month. I'm up here alone for a couple of days (Jim is having issues with, what else, a root canal treatment that went wrong) and will be back early next week when I can actually take up that awful red paper off the floors, clean them, move some more furniture in and actually live here! It won't be too long before I can do a movie, though Shanna tells me that it takes hours and hours to upload it. Maybe you'll just get pics.

This week, two of my grandchildren have birthdays. Jonathan will be 5 on Sunday, October 11, and Katie will be 9 on Wednesday, October 14. How time flies. Katie was my first born grandchild. I, my mother, and Jim's mother, Lessie, spent nearly a whole day along with Patti's mother and sister, awaiting the birth of this child. She was finally delivered by Caesarean section long after we had given up the ghost. She is a beautiful, sweet child and I love her very much. I can't wait for her to get up to the mountains. Jonathan was born about 6 weeks prior to his due date, but still weighed 5 pounds. Maybe he wasn't that early. He is ALL boy. I had a wonderful experience with him a couple weekends ago. JR and I went to his soccer game and he wanted to come home with us. We took him with us and when it came time to go to Reni's game, he didn't want to go. So...MiMi stayed with him. He rarely has much to do with me since he seems to like the "guys" better, but I guess that since I was all that was there, I'd do. He crawled up in my lap, snuggled up, asked for the cat (whom we had to find) and spent about an hour just talking to me and rubbing the cat. It was a wonderful thing for a grandmother to experience. There are so few times with your grandchildren, so each must be savored and remembered as the special ocassions that they are. May I say to all of my grandchildren...I love you more than you can possibly know. I want for each of you to have wonderful lives, and I want to be part of them as often as I can.

I am struggling with this move a little bit, since it is the cessation of a life that I have lived in Charlotte for 36 years. I doesn't feel wrong, it just feels funny.

First Time in 18 Months!

For the first time in 18 months JR and I were able to spend the night in our mountain house. For those of you who are not really familiar with the saga of this experience, suffice it to say that rennovations are everything people say they are! Don't ever do one! We had to move out of our cabin about 18 months ago, because we could no longer live in the conditions that the rennovation required. We have spent the time staying with our long-suffering friends, Curtis and Chris Long (no pun intended) since then. They have been most gracious and we have been very grateful for their hospitality. And, although we have tried to be "paying" guests by bringing food and other supplies when we came, and tried not to stay more than one or two nights at a time, it is still hard to have guests in your house as often as we were there. We will forever be in their debt and celebrate their friendship. But this weekend...we stayed at our own place! It was kind of like being newlyweds and setting up housekeeping! In fact, we liked it so much that even though we had planned to come home on Sunday night, we didn't. We got up early and came this morning instead.

Chris and Curt Long, good friends, good neighbors.

So let me tell you about this place:

It is the most gentle of all places...where the sun comes up over the moutains looking like an orange billiard ball, setting fire to the landscape; or, as the Hawaiians euphemistically say, we have a "silver sunrise". That means it's foggy, sometimes to the point that one can barely see beyond her nose.

It is a place where the quiet is loud. I read a little poem in a book my mother gave me one time that described it perfectly..."You could hear an ant fart, it was that quiet." None of the sounds of the city, just the sounds of life at an easier pace.

It is a place where wildlife abounds right outside the door. If you sit still, you can see all manner of nature...birds, squirrels, groundhogs, bears (yes, bears), panthers (that, too), bobcats, turkey, grouse, predator/scavenger fowl like buzzard, hawk, and owl. Wild flowers are everywhere, and fill vases with a profusion of color that is unmatched anywhere.

It is a place where the August sun feels good on the skin; where the summer breeze is, incredibly, almost constant; where nights require the use of a sweater or jacket, and a fire is a nightly ritual.

It is a place where the sunshine filters through the foliage, leaving a speckled footprint as if it is reluctant to intrude on the stillness.

It is a place where the winds can be high, the temperatures low, the snow blows into drifts that can be higher than your boots, and where the coziness of a warm fire makes one feel safe and secure.

It is soon going to be HOME!!!

And Then They Were Gone

As long as they were in Chapel Hill it was pretty easy to just believe that they would always be there. But...they left and now they are gone to Texas. Adam and Shanna came to Cashiers to see the house that is not quite finished. It was somewhat slippery keeping up with Avie who is quick as greased lightening! See, we have no railings on the porches (which are 20 or so feet above the ground), and all of us had to keep our eyes peeled for a curious 14 month old! When we were all a bundle of nerves, we headed to town for dinner. Avie is an eating machine and Gracie allowed her daddy to bribe her before she decided to eat anything. I did notice (as I was sitting beside her) that most of her food found its way to the floor, but the Tootsie Rolls were carefully guarded, so when her food disappeared her daddy let her have them. I played along, just Gracie and me in a conspiracy! After all, what are MiMis for?

We went for ice cream after dinner and, boy, was that a hoot! It's a great little place where you blend your own flavor. I had peach and amaretto. Delicious! Avie got it, though, and dumped it on the ground. She managed to do the same with her mother's cone. All in all, it was not a very successful venture.

Adam put Avie down in the parking lot at the ice cream shop. I squatted down (yes, I can do that now) and she ran into my open arms. That's the first time she had ever done that. I nearly blubbered right then and there.

Adam left the next day, and Shanna left on this past Monday after spending a week with her family in Asheville. She and her mother and the girls arrived in Austin on Tuesday night. I spoke with them during the trip. They had had a long day, but were holding up. We were glad for their safe arrival.

I miss them already, but we'll see them in October and then JR and I will go to Austin at Christmas. Adam, bless his heart, reminded me that it wasn't like it was in 1800, when a thousand miles meant that you probably would never see your child again. And, he likewsie reminded me, he wasn't going off to war. I am counting my blessings, but I still wish they were here.

Moving the Cars!

One of the things about moving is that there are so many things that have to go. Most of them are reasonably easy, but when trying to move 2 cars that don't run, a lot of sweat equity is involved. Jim and Jon have had 1957 Chevy's for a long time and neither have been on the road in years. I think it's been like since 1991. Anyway, JR was going to sell his and Jon was going to have to take possession of his. Jon decided that he wanted both of them. The problem was that there had to be a place to put them besides our now for sale garage. So, they bought a couple more shipping cargo containers (I've told you about those before), had them hauled to the mountains (luckily we have 45 acres up there), and then had to put them on the car hauler and take them up there. The first one was Jon's 4 door hardtop. It took them seven hours to get the tires pumped up, get it out of the garage, and onto the car carrier. The next one, the convertible only took 3 1/2 hours. I guess they got a system down after the first one. Now, mind you, the engines don't start, so all of this had to be done with pushing. I helped a little by getting in the cars and steering them. Then they were hauled off to Cashiers and put in the containers. Now the boys are looking at all the car magazines, buying engines to be rebuilt, planning driving tours, etc. Beautiful cars...we had lots of fun with the convertible when it was running and I'd like to ride in it one more time before I die! Check out the pics.

Girls Day Out

Ocassionally, my sisters, my mother, my sister-in-law, and my daughter-in-law and my two granddaughters get together in Greensboro for lunch and visiting. It is usually a spur of the moment thing and all of us can't get there all of the time, but it's always fun! Our last outing was sometime in June (I know, I'm a little slow). We had lunch. I'm not sure what we had, but I do remember the tomato pie. Mama makes a good one! I think we had chicken and fruit, too, but who knows. Attendees this time were me, sister Judy, sister Mary, Mama, sister-in-law Renee, daughter-in-law, Shanna, and the granddaughters Gracie and Avery. It was fun, but Shanna, Gracie, and Avery are moving to Texas with the Daddyman, so I guess they won't make the next few we have! Here are some pics!

The top pic is of Mama playing with Gracie and Baby Doshi (Gracie's froggy companion). Or maybe they are playing with Clean Doshi. No one but Gracie can ever tell since both froggie companions look alike. The next picture is Renee, my brother's wife. Then there's the pic of Judy Mary, and Mama. and last, but certainly not least is little Avery. Those little girls are SO CUTE!!! Their MiMi loves them passionately!

What Is He Doing?

Well, I can't be quiet any longer about President Obama. What in hell is he doing? He's throwing up new legislation so fast that it's like standing in front of a machine gun. It's being pushed through without time to read and digest it. His power grabs are maniacal, and he is pushing this country down a road that we don't want to travel. The problem as I see it is that too few people are paying attention. Couple that with the fact that he has demonstrated a disturbing pattern of controlling the press, and what do you have? You have an uninformed public. What will we say when we have deficits so high that our great grandchildren won't be able to pay them off? What do we say now when he promises all these great things, but there is no way in hell to pay for them? What will we say when we lose all our rights as citizens? Has he forgotten the 10th amendment..."all powers that are not enumerated in the constitution are reserved for the people"? This is so scary that I can't even contemplate it. When we have gotten to the place that we allow the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama make decisions for us and we say nothing, then we have fallen far indeed. Find yourself a "tea party". Find yourself a demonstration. Find your pen and write to your congresspersons. Don't just sit around and think that you will get something for nothing. All of us will pay...pay with dollars, and pay with the loss of the America that we have become accustomed to.

Wake up!!!! Start paying attention before it is too late.